Jerry Engle's 65, at age 70, an amazing golf tale

One week ago today, The Highlands reported three holes-in-one on the same day, two of them within minutes of each other.

Last week, Dave Cameron of Grant, who is 82, shot his age at Pilgrim’s Run Golf Club. Jeff O’Malley, the director of golf at Pilgrim’s Run, said Cameron did it from the white tees, and it wasn’t the first time he has matched his score to his age.

Cameron also did it each year from ages 75 to 79, but didn’t shoot 80 when he was 80 or 81 when he was 81.

But he got 82 at 82.

"I hope I’m alive at that age," said O’Malley.

Here comes the topper.

Jerry Engle, who is 70, shot five shots better than his age -- yes, a 65 -- at Cascade Hills Country Club just three weeks after hitting himself in the head with an ax.

This happened last November, just as the golf season came to end, but I just had to tell you about it because amazing things happen in golf.

While Engle is a skillful golfer, and has been for several years, he doesn’t mind if you joke with him that shaving strokes with an ax is not recommended.

Jerry Engle

The Grand Rapids resident also is proud of shooting 65 at age 70 and rightly so.

Hole-in-ones are one thing -- very nice, and something to remember and celebrate. Shooting one’s age for 18 holes for those in the 70s and 80s in something to brag about and further testimony that golf is a game you can play for the rest of your life.

Which brings us back to Engle and his splitting maul.

He carries 65 cents most days in his pocket, which honors his 65. It was well-earned. As he tells it, he had rotator cuff surgery on Feb. 6 of 2008, and a week later, on Friday the 13th, he had a minor heart attack that led to six-way bypass surgery.

He recovered and was back playing golf in four months. He didn’t play well in 2009, mostly because of physical weakness, though for him that means his handicap went from a four to a nine.

"No sympathy from the bandits I regularly play with," said the Watermark Country Club member.

By 2010, his game started to come around, and he was back to being a 5-handicap.

Then came the accident. Engle was trying to chop up a a rotted stump in his back yard, when a clothes line got involved.

He tells it like only a golfer would.

"With a 10-pound log splitter I went past parallel in my back swing and the axe hit the clothes line and recoiled," he said. "Something seemed to fall out of the sky and hit me like a right cross on the top of my head."

It was the blunt heel of the maul and it meant a trip to the emergency room where he found out he did not have a concussion. He just needed five deep stitches and 10 staples, and two weeks of therapy for a sore tail bone from the hard fall.

He went back to golf on Nov. 4 swinging easy. The 65 day came on Nov. 9 when Hal Smith, Kevin Smith and Ray Drumm invited him to Cascade Hills.

"It was a beautiful day, around 65 degrees," he said. "I had the second-best round of my life, not only shooting my age but besting it by five strokes. I shot 33-32, no bogeys, hit 16 greens, made four birdies and an eagle. I think the good Lord said ‘this guy deserves a break.’"

A week later, on Saturday, Nov. 13, Notre Dame’s football team was hosting Utah in South Bend. Engle was at the game. Thanks to Hal and Kevin, he saw his name on the scoreboard along with 81,000 other fans.